Holmes: Repeal this

Since Congress doesn’t seem capable of doing anything, maybe it should concentrate on undoing things. If so, I have a few suggestions for laws to repeal, and a couple of policies President Obama could undo on his own.

Asked recently to account for Congress’ record low approval ratings and its failure to pass even routine legislation, House Speaker John Boehner came up with a change in the legislature’s job description: “We should not be judged on how many new laws we create,’ he said on CBS. ‘We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal.”

It’s an interesting concept. Since Congress doesn’t seem capable of doing anything, maybe it should concentrate on undoing things. If so, I have a few suggestions for laws to repeal, and a couple of policies President Obama could undo on his own.

By Boehner’s standard, Congress won’t be judged very positively on its performance so far. While his House has voted 40 times to repeal Obamacare, a law isn’t repealed unless the Senate goes along, and that’s not happening. The last significant law Congress repealed, as far as I can recall, was “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and that was in 2010, when the Democrats controlled Congress.

But if Boehner is looking to score some points with the judges, I can suggest a few targets:

- Repeal the sequestration cuts. Republicans and Democrats agreed from the beginning that these automatic spending cuts, designed to force Congress to make a deal on more thoughtful deficit reduction, were dumb and dangerous. The Fed says the sequestration, along with the tax hikes that hit in January, will knock 1.5 points out of GDP growth this year. The deficit is coming down anyway. Repeal the dumb cuts.

- Repeal the rest of the Defense of Marriage Act. The Supreme Court invalidated the provisions discriminating against same-sex couples, but not the part that allows states to deny the “full faith and credit” respect due to marriages performed in other states. Repeal it, because the love and commitment these couples share doesn’t stop at state lines.

- Repeal the law that denies federal student aid to people with drug convictions on their record. The law, enacted in 2000, doesn’t deter drug use; it just limits educational opportunity, a punishment that can last a lifetime.

- Repeal the law that automatically gives a big share of assets seized from those accused of drug crimes to local police departments participating in the bust. These asset forfeitures aren’t just an unconstitutional travesty of due process; they create incentives for local police to spend resources on drug busts instead focusing on violent or property crimes. As Radley Balko recounts in his disturbing new book, “The Rise of the Warrior Cop,” some police wait until the drugs have been sold before making an arrest, choosing to put cash in their department’s budget even if it means more drugs on the street.

- Repeal Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. That’s the part that gives the NSA the authority to collect all Americans’ phone and email data. In a rare, bipartisan stand for privacy, Boehner’s House came within seven votes of reining in that program in July. Section 215 expires in 2015. Let’s repeal it early.

Page 2 of 2 - Obama has responded to an obstinate, dysfunctional Congress by promising to do more by executive actions that don’t require congressional approval. Fine. Here are some suggestions for him:

- Repeal the outdated and unnecessary ban on blood donations from gay men. Blood banks agree the ‘80s-era prohibition on donations from any male who has ever had sex with another male is no longer needed to protect the blood supply from HIV. Sen. Elizabeth Warren last month joined with a few colleagues to revive this issue after hearing from a gay constituent who went to donate blood to help the Marathon bombing victims, only to be turned away. The administration has been studying the issue for years. It’s time to act.

- Reclassify marijuana. The states have been taking the lead on marijuana reform, and 20 have now legalized its use for medical purposes. But since 1970, the federal government has classified weed as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has no legitimate medical use. Obama has proven to be more of a drug warrior than a reformer, but he has often promised his administration would be guided by science. But there’s no scientific argument that justifies classifying cannabis with heroin as opposed to more dangerous and addictive Schedule II drugs as cocaine and oxycodone, which are legal in a medical setting.

The law charges the Drug Enforcement Administration with the classification of drugs, so Obama could order the change without a vote in Congress. It would be a small step toward common sense drug laws, resolving a state/federal conflict that has put seriously ill people in the crosshairs of federal drug agents. The DEA shouldn’t be determining medical value anyway.

If the folks in Washington can’t do anything positive, maybe they can undo some of the mistakes Washington has made in the past.